Regenerative gas-furnace.



No. 653,793. Patented July l7, I900. E. DERVAL. REGENERATIVE GAS FURNAGE. Application flleiMny 9, 1899.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheer ATTORNEYS 0 T m. v. M

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VITA 885 (2% M Patented July I7, 1900.-

L A V R E D .L

REGENERATIVE GAS FURNACE.

(Application fild May 9, 1899.)

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(ii-o Nodal.)

ATTORNEYS NITED STATES PATENT EUGENE DERVAL, on PARIS, FRANCE;

SPECIFICATION forming at in Letters Patent No. 653,793, dated. army 17, 1906.

Application filed May 9,1899. Serial No. 716,138. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EUGENE DERVAL, en-

gineer, of 18 Rue Mogador, Paris, in the Republic of France, have invented an Improvement in Regenerative Gas-Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and bythe following statement.

This invention relates to improvements in the furnaces of inclined retorts, the object of which is to improve the working and reduce the cost. a 1

The accompanying sheet of drawings illustrates the application of the said improvements to a bench of nine retorts for making illuminating-gas, it being understood that the construction and arrangement of the furnace may be varied according to the nu mber,shape, and dimensions of the retorts employed.

In the said sheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the center of a bench of retorts; Fig. 2, a section taken through one of the regenerators of the furnace. Fig. 3 shows four half-transverse sections taken on the lines A A, B B, C O, and D D of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 shows four halfhorizontal sections taken on the lines M M, N N, O O, and P P of Fig. 2.

The arrows a indicate the course taken by the air necessary to effect combustion of the gas generated in the gas-producer I, and the arrows b the course taken by the said gas on its way out of the said gas-producer. The arrows without an indicating-letter show the course taken by the products of combustion.

1 indicates the combustible gas-producer, fed with coke or coal; 2, the charging-throat of the gas-producer; 3, the regenerator for utilizing the waste heat of the products of combustion in order to heat the air necessary for the combustion of the gas generated in the prod ucer; l, the damper; 5, the combustion-chamber; 6, the flue leading to the chimney; 7 the first inlet for hot air into the combustion-chamber; 8, the second inlet for hot air near the middle of the retorts; 9, the small inlet for air for reheating, when necessary, the gas from the producer; 10, retorts made slightly conical; 11, a stopper for retaining the coal charged into the retort; 12, a cement covering for the front of the furnace; 13, in-

clined pipes for conducting the gas from the inclined retorts to the hydraulic main; 14, a hydraulic main.

In the drawings the retorts are shown inclined at an angle of thirty-two degrees; but this inclination may be varied between twenty-eight degrees and thirty-six degrees", and even more, according to the nature of the coal, the'method of charging, and the shape and the length of the retorts. The inclination of thirty-two degrees to thirty-four degrees should be considered as a medium inclination corresponding tolerably well to the conditions required for a good distillation of the coal and an easy discharge of the coke.

Since their introduction for the manufac ture of illuminating-gas inclined retorts have not given very good results, chiefly in consequence of the difiiculty of heating them eco nomically and regularly. Furthermore, the necessity there has been of placing the combustible gas-producer in such position that it projects beyond the retort-bench in order to have space enough for the regenerators and the smoke-flue has rendered it very difiicult to construct the furnaces properly. In some installations the charging of the producer and the cleaning of the fire-bars has been done, as in'm'y furnaces, behind the retort-benches; but it has then been necessary to make use of a special floor or platform for charging the producers, so that there were required three diiferent floors or platformsone for charging the retorts, one for charging the producers, and one for discharging the coke.

Furnaces constructed according to my invention allow the height of the bench of retorts to be greatly reduced and the floors or platforms for discharging the coke and for charging the producers to be done away with without its being necessary to have a special pit for clearing the grate-bars. The removal of ashes and clinker is effected at the level of the floor of the retort-house; but a pit may be made, if preferred, behind the benches.

In order to charge the producers from the same charging floor or platform as the retorts, I simply do away with thearch over the producer and use instead thereof the bottom of the middle retort. When the quality of the retorts is not quite certain, it is preferable to IOO support the bottom of this retort on a row of fire-clay slabs, as shown in the drawings. This arrangement is a special feature of my invention which, combined with my system of burner or gas-producer, has enabled me to reduce considerably the cost of inclined retort-furnaces by placing the producer and the regenerators in the space left by the inclination of the retorts.

The retorts are supported by transverse walls placed so that the flames or hot products of combustion follow the course shown by the arrows in the drawings.

The circulation of the flames orhotproductsof combustion in the direction indicatedthat is to say, lengthwise of the retorts-is assured by a cross-wall M, which rises up to the arch of the furnace, so as to return the flames or hot products of combustion under the lower retorts.

Contrary to the usual practice the regenerator is so arranged that the smoke and waste products of combustion pass into the vertical holes of the brickwork of the regenerator; but this arrangement is not indispensable and any other system of regenerator may be employed for heating the air.

The construction of the gas-producer may of course be modified, acccording to the nature of the fuel employed, without departing from my invention.

An examination of Figs. 1, 3, and .4 shows easily that the gas which escapes from the gas-generator and passes by the apertures 0, arranged at the upper part of the wall N, can be carried to as high a temperature as may be desired by the introduction of a sufficient quantity of air into the principal combustionchamber 5, said introduction taking place at 7. As this combustion -chamber is placed below the lowest extremity of the retort which covers the gas-generator it will always be possible to bring the base of the retorts to the desired temperature by regulating, through the air-valve 3 of the reouperator, the admission of hot air taking place at 7. As regards the upper part, which does not require to be raised to so high a temperature for a good distillation, it is only necessary to open appropriately the damper X, which regulates the second inlet of hot air at 8. (See Fig. 2.

The small inlets for air, (shown at 9,) one at each side of the charging-opening of the gasproducer, are simply for partly turning the gas in the producer when, for example, in consequence of the employment of coal as fuel the distillation is not perfect in the retort placed directly over the producer. I attach great importance to the use of this arrangement of furnace,for it enables me to obtain not only a very regular heating of the retorts with coke, coal, or tar, but also a notable reduction of the quantity of fuel consurned in consequence of the better utilization of the heat of the flame or of the products ofcombustion. Furthermore, the suc cessive combustion to which I subject the gases before sending them to the regenerator prevents the cutting action of the fire on the retorts, and the duration of the latter is therebyincreased. This method of heating may also be applied to furnaces of seven and eight retorts, also to furnaces having only two vertical rows of retorts, (furnaces with two, five, and six retorts.) In this latter case the gasproducer is placed at the side of the furnace under one of the lower retorts. For furnaces having two horizontal rows of retorts it is suflicient to omit in furnaces with seven,eight,

and nine retorts the second row of retorts without altering the furnace at all or the position of the producer.

Sliding of the retorts and leakages of airthrough the front walls are prevented in my furnaces by the employment of a' covering of cement 12, in which are embedded the horizontal iron bars which hold in place the castiron mouthpieces of the retorts. The ends of these bars are held by small hands of iron riveted to the stanchions and other supporting-ironwork of the retort-bench. This supporting-ironwork does not project at all beyond the face of the retort-bench, which is a great advantage when the removal of the coke is effected with wagons or a quenching-conveyer.

I prefer to arrange the ascension-pipes and hydraulic main for inclined retortsin a manner which differs entirely from what has been heretofore employed. In retort-benches for illuminating-gas the ascension-pipes which convey the gas from the retorts to the hydraulic main are usually arranged vertically,

whether the hydraulic main is placed in front or not of the face of the benches or furnaces. The result of this is that the weight of the pipes acts directly on the cast-iron mouthpieces and tends to detach them from the retorts. close to the face of the bench or furnace are greatly heated thereby, and the tar deposited in them forms accumulations which prevent the free escape of the gas. To obviate these inconveniences, known to every gas-works manager, I incline the ascension-pipes and place the hydraulic main at a tolerable distance from the benches or furnaces. By these means the weight of the ascension-pipes acts much less powerfully on the mouthpieces of the retorts, and as the pipes diverge from the face of the furnacestheir contact with the cold air prevents the deposit of the tar in them and the obstructions occasioned thereby.

It is obvious that instead of contributing to the sliding downward of the inclined retorts the pipes oppose such sliding, since they bear against the face of the furnace by the Furthermore, these pipe: being very intermediary of the small feet cast on the upper part of the cast-iron elbows a little below the cleaning-plugs 02. (See Fig. 1.)

the tar is to be feared in particular, it is well to increase the refrigerating action of the pipes by furnishing them with wings.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is- 1. In a regenerative gas-furnace for inclined gas-retorts, the combination of a gas-producer, placed directly below one of the retorts of the furnace, said gas-producer being provided with a charging-opening placed at the level of the retort-charging floor, and at the side opposite that at which the coke is taken from the retorts, a combustion-chamber 5 placed behind the gasgenerator, and a wall N separating the combustion-chamber and gas-producer, said wall being provided at its upper part with one or more openings 0 which allow the gas to pass into the combustion-chamher so as to heat strongly the lowest extremity of the retorts, substantially as described.

2. In a regenerative furnace, the combination with the inclined retorts, the recuperators, the gas-producer and the combustion chamber 5, arranged below the lower ends of the inclined retorts and behind the gas-producer and separated from the gas-producer by the wall N having holes 0 and a wall M reaching to the arch of the furnaces and separating the working body of the furnaces, so as to compel the flames to pass between the supporting-walls of the retorts and to change direction four times before arriving at the recuperators, substantially as described.

3. In a regenerative gas-furnace having inclined retorts, the combination with the gasgenerator, the combustion-chamber 5 and the separating-wall, a hot-air inlet 8 admitting air below the lateral retorts from the bottom and near the middle of the course of all the flames, so as to burn the excess of gas contained by them and thus to bring the highest end of the retorts to a sufficient temperature.

4. In a regenerative gas-furnace having in clined retorts, the combination with the gas producer,the combustion-chamber 5,the separating-wall M and the second air-admission port, of a small hot-air inlet, the air coming in by the front wall of the gas-producer at so each side of the charging mouth, for the pur pose of increasing the temperature of the gas which is above the layer of fuel in the gasgenerator. a

5. Inaregenerative gas-furnace forinclined 5 5 gas-retorts, the combination of a cement man tle or covering, in which the flanges of the retort-heads are sunk, together with horizon tal iron braces, also sunk in the cement mantle, for the purpose of preventing the retorts from sliding forward.

6. In a regenerative gas-furnace for inclined retorts, the combination of a hydraulic main or condenser placed before the body of the furnace with inclined pipes connecting said main with the retort-heads, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

EUGENE DERVAL,

Vitnesses:

EDWARD P. MAoLEAN, JULES FAYOLLET. 

